Mig welding and welders?

[Pilatus]

I don’t know much about welding or Mig Welders. Years ago I went on an evening welding course for beginners but never followed it up as I didn’t have a welder.
Now I am semi retired I quite fancy buying a welder just to try and do a bit of welding as a hobby as well as welding my old firewood processing kit if it needs it.
Can you recommend a descent quality Mig Welder that I could use to weld up to 1/2inch plate, ( if I ever get proficient at welding that thickness!!)
Any tips /suggestions appreciated.
Than you.

 

[Grassman247]

R tech welders, British made, not too expensive and very good company to deal with

 

[Pilatus]

R tech welders, British made, not too expensive and very good company to deal with

If applicable what size welder should I go for in the range they sell?

 

[Grassman247]

If applicable what size welder should I go for in the range they sell?

The 250amp welder is very good for the price, it also has the ability to double up as a stick welder, only downside is to go over 160 amps you’ll need to plug it into a 32amp socket

are you welding in a workshop or on site?

 

[Pilatus]

The 250amp welder is very good for the price, it also has the ability to double up as a stick welder, only downside is to go over 160 amps you’ll need to plug it into a 32amp socket

are you welding in a workshop or on site?

It would be equivalent of on site ,as no electricity at my yard, so that will make a lot of difference. I should of stated that at the start of my thread.

 

[Grassman247]

Well if your running on site of a generator I guess it doesn’t matter then as most good generators have a 16amp supply

 

[scholland]

Welding on site with a generator i would go for a Mma stick welder.

 

[davieh3350]

What he said.
A welder generator and some welding rods.
Or you could go for a miller big blue with a wire feed attachment...

 

[neilalex]

Bear in mind that with MIG you're going to need shielding gas (gasless MIG is pretty crap) , and potentially different kinds of gas depending on the material to be welded. If you want to weld aluminium you'll need MIG, you can theoretically weld aluminium with stick but it's horrible, not really an option. 1/2" plate will need 200 amps plus.

R Tech are reasonable machines and very good to deal with as has been said. Oxford welders are more expensive but very good also. If you do opt for stick and portability isn't an issue you can pick up an old oil cooled welder for little money. Tend to last forever.

 

[Pistonbroke]

I have no experience of mig and gasless always gets slated because it has always been a hobby type machine but it's used a lot on pipelines and ship building outdoors. Loads of vids on youtube and a lot of high spec welders have settings for flux core wire

 

[moorender]

Have a look at MIG welding Forum before you spend.

MIG Welding Tutorial, Techniques and Practical

Some good videos etc. Much like here.
I think at any age a good night school course is value for money, you will learn a lot, use their consumables and machines.
Enjoy it.

 

[neilalex]

You can certainly use it. May just be a personal thing, but I never liked the arc characteristics, generally got more splatter and noise etc. In fairness though, I never persevered with it because there was no need for me to.

 

[Exfarmer]

I have heard of people using CO2 for Mig but never tried it myself, has anyone else?

 

[neilalex]

Yes, a bit like my experience with flux core you just get more spatter and a noisier less smooth, less stable arc, however it works fine. Generally you get a lumpier looking bead if appearance is an issue at all. Obviously it's a fair bit cheaper than the normal argon/co2 mix.

 

[bravheart]

If it's just to get that bearing out then any old stick welder will do, you'll get chinese inverters for less than £100 these days that will do the bearing trick and no need for gas or a s/h transformer for similar money.

 

[Agric Harriet]

Gys multi pearl 200 - 4XL,
Yeah its a fair bit of money but it's great to use and works efficiently on household electric mains as it being an inverter. Has a computer screen so just put in what width material and works out wire speed and voltage for you. Can do stick, mig and tig on it..
I got mine from welding supplies direct, very helpful. Worth a phonecall to them just to ask if they have anything that suits your needs if you didn't want to spend as much!

 

[bobk]

I've always stick welded , would I benefit getting a mig ?

 

[Agric Harriet]

I've always stick welded , would I benefit getting a mig ?

Depends how often you need/want to weld and what kind of stuff your welding

 

[Bury the Trash]

I've always stick welded , would I benefit getting a mig ?

Only a bit less fumes that's all, really they get to me a bit these days,make me cough awt to fix up a fan or get a hood or something I suppose.
Also Mig needs more power to penetrate as well .

The choice of rods is what I prefer as well, I mean 7018 for high strength etc ....